Why So Many Social & Mental Illnesses During Ramadhan?

Why so many case of relapses during Ramadhan? Why so many infants being murdered during Ramadhan? Well, no one can answer those questions properly without undertaking a proper study.

1. It seems that in Ramadhan, the Malaysian press is more sensitive to highlight social issues more than political and economic issues as the headline. The press understands the sensitivity of Malaysian public who become more ‘religious’ so to speak, at this time of the month. The scope perhaps will highlight more public attention and workable reaction from the authority.

2. The relative of mental patients are reluctant to take initiative to bring the patients to hospital simply because they are busy with the routine during Ramadhan.

3. The patients for simple reason do not take medication during the fasting month. As a result, relapse is inevitable.

4. As your sleep-wake cycle is disturbed, you tend to become gloomy and somehow jeopardize your judgment esp. those people who are vulnerable to psychiatric disorders.

5. To some patients, the joy of celebrating Ramadhan with lots of religious inputs create ‘entry life events’ that precipitate relapse. It has been shown in many studies, that, welcoming event even by simply counting the number of days could be stressful to some patients. That explains why relapse of illness seems to occur during general election, at time of economic and political crisis and disaster. In part, it’s very much depend on how someone evaluate or appraise the situation.

Finally, as Bandura theorized, the more confident people feel about responding skillfully to the varying demands of the situation, the harder they will try to overcome the problem and the the longer they will persist at it. So it is about self-efficacy. Could it be that despite the fact that to many, Ramadhan enhance their self-efficacy but to some, it weaken their self-efficacy?